


Three Years

by Spazzo47



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:48:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25213444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spazzo47/pseuds/Spazzo47
Summary: Jim brings his parents to the newsroom where they meet the woman who took their son into a warzone.This is for LIlac Mermaid's June 2016 Fan Fiction CHallenge Family Visits.
Relationships: Will McAvoy/MacKenzie McHale
Comments: 8
Kudos: 15





	Three Years

“This is my desk.” Jim looked at his parents feeling a little self-conscious. He didn’t expect them to judge him or his job, but he knew the image he had in his mind of what a bullpen looked like and what journalists do, and he felt like the reality looked underwhelming. 

“Are you seeing Reese behind our backs again? Who the fuck cares about your God damned ratings? That’s all I’ve fucking heard about this month.”

Jim’s eye got wide as he looked for a reaction from his parents. 

“Are you really fucking jealous of Reese? You know he’s not my type.”

“You’re right, he’s not a 20-something blonde.”

Will slammed his door as Mac turned towards her office, before she could straighten up, Will’s door opened again, “I guess that means you’re not my type either!” Everyone heard his door slam again. 

Jim looked back at his parents, “I’m sure you recognized Will and –”

Before Jim could say Mac’s name, she walked up to the trio with her hand out. “Mackenzie McHale. You must be Jim’s parents.”

Immediately Jim’s mother’s face changed to show the anger she’s always associated with that name. “Come on, Mom. Let’s go look at the editing bay.”

“So, you’re the one that forced our Jamie into a war zone.”

“She didn’t force me, Mom. I told you that.” Jim looked at Mac with an unspoken apology on his face. 

“Jim?” Mac asked, hoping for an explanation. 

“Come on, let’s go that editing bay. That sounds… interesting.” Jim’s father put his arm around his wife and followed Jim who started walking them to another room. 

Mac watched them leave and didn’t notice Will standing behind her. “What’s that about? Jim’s not bringing fans up here is he?” Mac shook her head silently, the expression on her face worrying Will. “Mac? What’s wrong?”

“Jim’s parents. I never met them and I guess they… they blame me. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

Will looked around the bullpen as people moved around. He put his hand at the small Mac’s back and ushered her into his office, closing the door behind them. By the time he sat down behind his desk, Mac had settled into her seat and looked at him, apparently deciding what to say. “When I, uh, you know. We were going to…”

Will looked her knowing why she didn’t know how to say this to him. “I was supposed to go with you. I remember.” Will had insisted on going to the Middle East. He felt like he didn’t do anything real in the insulated anchor chair, so over her objections, he put in the proposal and no news organization on earth would pass up the chance for their anchor to go. After the breakup, she went to Atlanta to put a crew together and then he sent his temporary desk sitter to take his place in Afghanistan instead. 

“I had to recruit a team, so I went to a meeting with some crew and asked who had the experience I wanted. Jim fit the profile best, so I asked him if he wanted to come for a 2-week long assignment. He looked me in the eye and said yes, ma’am.”

Will looked at Mackenzie. He had so many questions, things he didn’t think about except when he was alone in bed. Ironically, he tried to avoid those moments by having companionship at night. He didn’t get a chance to ask any of them before she said, “I wouldn’t have forced anyone.” 

Finally, he found his voice, “How long was he there?” Will found it easier to ask about Jim’s deployment instead of hers. He had put together that she must have stayed there until just before she stomped into his newsroom. That meant close to three years. He couldn’t believe it, but he couldn’t bring himself to get her to confirm it. 

“He was there with me the whole time, close to three years.”

The words hit Will like a dagger. He remembered firing her during a commercial, making sure that as many people as possible would hear it. That had to be why she didn’t come back. She had nothing here, so, the woman who didn’t want to put her life in danger, put herself in harm’s way for three years. After he exiled her.

“I never let them take any unnecessary risks. Other than, just being there. But even then, they could have left anytime. CNN would have taken any of us back.” Mac laughed humorlessly, “they took Jim back in fact.”

The next obvious question was on Will’s lips, but he couldn’t ask it. He didn’t want to know why they didn’t take her back. He’d never heard the story, and any stories he did hear, he tried to unhear. 

“But she’s still a mother and her son was sent to cover a war.”

Mac nodded her head. “I know.”

“And it looks like you protected him. No one died, no one got hurt.”

Will said it confidently, but meant it as a question, and the look she gave him at the end of his statement told him everything he needed to know. His journalistic instinct wanted to know who got hurt and how bad. But he didn’t need to know. If it was her, he definitely didn’t need to know that. If she had a scar hidden somewhere, it would just… he’d have to think about… and imagine… her body and an imperfection… and he couldn’t. 

“Do you want me to keep them away from you? I can take them to lunch and keep them busy.”

Mac laughed this time. “You want to use your star status on peons like Jim’s parents?”

Will shrugged his shoulders and cocked his head. He wanted to tell her that for him it wasn’t a big deal. 

“I think Jim can take his parents to lunch and he has the week off, so I don’t expect them here long.” She looked at Will, seeing something that made her remember the strength he always gave her. She looked out at the bullpen. “I need to go back to my office.”

Will nodded his head as she left. He watched her walk as far as the glass let him see and then he looked at the rest of the newsroom. When Jim and his parents returned, he got up to leave his office. As he got closer, he heard Jim say, “Maggie, these are my parents, Bill and Lynne.”

“It’s so nice to meet you. Jim has told us so much about you. Now you’re a minister and you’re a teacher, right?”

While Bill and Lynne agreed, Will arrived at their circle. “Hi, I’m Will McAvoy. I know that you witnessed that little argument between my executive producer and I.”

While Jim looked like he wanted to go invisible, Maggie whispered to Lynne, “We assume it’s flirting for them.”

Will didn’t hear what Maggie said, but threw her a warning glance anyway, assuming he knew the general idea. “That was very unprofessional. Mac works really hard to always protect her people and to run this place as professionally as possible because she really is the best in the business. Unfortunately, I drag her down.”

Maggie gawked at Will for a second then whispered back at Jim’s parents, “That’s his way of apologizing.”

“Well, that’s –”

Before Lynne could finish her statement, Will said, “Come on, let me take you to the executive dining room for some coffee.”

“Will, that’s alright. We’re just on our way –“

Will interrupted the senior producer “No, don’t be silly, I have a few minutes before the pitch meeting. Jim, you stay here and I’ll take care of them. Bill, Lynn?”

Jim’s parents followed Will while Jim stood watching them. Finally, he walked over to Mac’s office, opening the door. “Knock, knock.”

Mac wiped a tear from her eyes, pretending she had some makeup in them. 

“Hey, Mac, look, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to bring them here at all, but they insisted that they wanted to see where I worked. I tried to sneak them in and out while you and Will—”

“Were with Charlie. I figured. We got done a little early.”

“Mac, I never blamed you for taking me there. I wanted to go. I didn’t think I was supposed to want it, so I didn’t act like it was a big deal back then, but it was.” Jim took a breath to figure out what to say. “My brother enlisted and went overseas. IED took him. My parents wouldn’t let me enlist. My dad all but shipped me to seminary. I dropped out after a week and took the first job I could find. I had a friend at CNN who said I could stand behind a camera. I wanted to honor my brother, go out there, show real heroes. You didn’t force me, you gave me the life that I always wanted.”

Mac nodded her head. “I should talk to them. Where are they now?”

“Bizarrely, Will told them that you prize professionalism over everything else and took them to get some coffee.”

Mac smiled in a way that Jim had never seen in the over three years he’s known her. “He knew that you would want to talk to me, so he made sure you could. You’re a good kid and he knows it.”

It seemed to Jim that there might be more to it than that, but he was satisfied with the answer she gave. Jim went out to the bullpen where Maggie called him over. When the Harpers came back from coffee with Will, he shook their hands and handed them back to Jim. Will knocked on Mac’s office door and “reminded” her to come to the pitch meeting. 


End file.
